I don't listen to much Christian radio nowadays, for obvious reasons.

But every now and again, I'll tune in. Call it a sense of nostalgia. Call it a quest for fodder. Call it what you will.

The other day, I flipped over to 99.5 KKLA, "The Intersection of Faith and Reason."

Don't get me started on that one.

If it was a quest for fodder, well, fodder I got.

The preacher was, as is common, talking about one, narrow aspect of the gospel, and he concluded with the following words:

"...Brothers and sisters, this is good news!"

Which got me thinking...

Do you really have to tell someone that what you've just told them is good news?

And if you do, how good could it really be?

I mean, imagine the following conversations...

[One Dodger fan to another] "We just signed Manny Ramirez! This is good news!"

[Ryan Seacrest to that hysterical girl, I think her name is Tatiana] "You are the next American Idol! This is good news!"

[Phil Mickelson's agent to Phil] "Tiger just blew out his knee again! This time it's permanent! This is good news!"

I know most of my readers are people of faith, and reason rarely intersects their being (once, by definition, right?...OK, I said I wouldn't go there...), but do you see my point?

Good News should have the characteristic of eliciting from the hearer the proclamation, "Wow, that's good news!"

Tell me the Dodgers have signed Manny, and I will tell you that is good news.

So here's the point: When you communicate the gospel, the real, full gospel, granted, some will consider it a scandal, some will consider it folly, but some will hear it as good news.

And if they don't, and you think you have to add, "This is good news, BTW," then maybe you need to re-evaluate a few things.

Just a thought.

Grace and Peace,
Raffi